"If I win Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders? Then I'll take the rest of the year off" - Wout van Aert plots route to successful 2025
Cycling
Wout van Aert came up short in his quest to win the 2025 Cyclocross World Championships last weekend in Lievin, finishing a distant 2nd to long-time rival Mathieu van der Poel. Now, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike star turns his attention to the upcoming road season.
"It's a shame that I wasn't near him at the start. I could have put more pressure on him, but Mathieu had the luxury of being able to control the race from the start," reflects Van Aert in conversation with Eurosport now the dust has settled from the weekend's drama. "He didn't have to take any risks. It's a shame, but it was my own choice not to spend too much time on cyclocross this year."
As mentioned, Van Aert can now turn his focus onto the road, with his notable targets including the Spring Classics and the Giro d'Italia. "Flanders and Roubaix are my biggest goals for the spring," the 30-year-old Belgian looks ahead. "In 2020 I was just too late in a sprint with Van der Poel. I told myself then that there were still plenty of chances, but five years later... I didn't go for the win in the other editions. I have to stay focused now."
"I weigh eighty kilos now, so it is normal that I would like to win Paris-Roubaix. But that atmosphere at the Tour of Flanders cannot be matched," continues Van Aert excitedly. "There is no other race like it. Roubaix is of course special, but as a Belgian the Tour of Flanders is really not normal."
Ahead of his first ever trip to the Giro d'Italia, the Maglia Rosa is also very much in Van Aert's sights, although not as some have hoped, in a general classification capacity. "I'm thinking of course of the leader's jersey, looking at the first stages in Albania. They're tough, but they're right up my alley. Of course I don't want to keep it too long, because I also want to have a chance of winning more stages," he concludes with a caveat. "If I win Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders? Then I'll take the rest of the year off."
🗣️ "Si je gagne les deux, je pars en vacances pour le reste de l'année !"
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) February 4, 2025
Invité de Bistrot Vélo, Wout van Aert s’est projeté sur la saison sur route et notamment sur le Tour des Flandres et Paris-Roubaix, les Monuments qu’il rêve de gagner #LesRP pic.twitter.com/6AZnUeCFX9
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- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025 - According to Tadej's Strava upload, he went up the Cipressa at an average speed of 37.6kph. Rocket ship! He did the 5.63km verified 'Cipressa' Strava segment in 8:59 minutes, which has a 4.3% average grade and total elevation gain of 229m. Naturally, he got the Strava KOM.Pogboom23-03-2025
- In Track and Field, there's Usain Bolt in the sprints and Kenya's Kipchoge in the marathon. Though Bolt can quite easily beat Kipchoge in the 100m dash, he probably won't even finish a marathon. Tadej won't beat Mathieu in a sprint, yet he wins the TDF while MVDP languishes in 50th place. Both are great champions in their respective fields, but my admiration goes to Tadej for trying.FredMan23-03-2025
- They went into the race as co-leaders!frieders323-03-2025
- He can win that sprint if he plays it right but leaving tha gap was ridiculous ! A spring after 6+ hours isn't a guarantee for MVDPfrieders323-03-2025
- The climbs are steeper on Flanders giving Pogi the advanatge as we saw before when he won!frieders323-03-2025
- VDP is best in a short sprint, so Pog was purposely leaving a gap in hopes that VDP wouldn't have enough to sprint for 310 meters at the end of 300 KM. Kwiatkowski did the same thing to Sagan at that same point and won because of it.acem8223-03-2025